Penn Brewery Announces Sale and Retirement

Penn Brewery’s Sale

Today on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media, the owners of Penn Brewery (in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) – Sandy Cindrich, Corey Little, and Linda Nyman; announced their sale and upcoming retirement. They announced the sale was to Stefan Nitsch. Stephan Nitsch is described in their post as a Pittsburgh based businessman and owner of Arkham Realty. Their post on their social media also announces their retirement after thirteen years of running the brewery.

Their post reads:

Big news! Penn Brewery’s owners – Sandy Cindrich, Corey Little, and Linda Nyman – are pleased to announce the sale of the company to Stefan Nitsch, Pittsburgh-based businessman and owner of Arkham Realty. After thirteen years helming the Brewery, Sandy, Linda, and Corey plan to retire.

Sandy noted, “In an era when so many small and mid-sized breweries are being bought up by large corporate entities, it was critical that as a ‘quintessentially Pittsburgh’ institution, Penn Brewery remain locally based and independently owned.”

Having spent his childhood in Austria and Switzerland, and his adulthood in Pittsburgh, Stefan says, “I’m a huge fan of Penn’s “Euro-Pittsburgh” branding and look forward to bringing it to the next generation of Penn consumers.”

Let’s raise a glass to Stefan! Stefan Wolfgang NitschArkham Realty and Property Management

Penn Brewery – Facebook Post

Penn Brewery

(The following statistics comes from the Penn Brewery Untappd Page.) Penn Brewery is a micro brewery from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It has 163 unique beers with a global average rating of 3.48 and over 178 thousand ratings. Their Untappd description reads: Pittsburgh’s oldest and largest brewery, Penn is housed in the mid nineteenth-century landmark E&O Brewery Building in the North Side’s Deutschtown neighborhood, which was settled by German immigrants. Penn has been producing high-end craft beers since 1986, specializing in authentic, award-winning German-style beers brewed in the tradition of these immigrants, according to the strict quality standards of Reinheitsgebot. Our beers’ great taste comes from real German hops and two-row barley, with no added corn or rice fillers. Penn Brewery is proudly independently owned and operated.

From Wikipedia: Penn Brewery, also known as the Pennsylvania Brewing Company, is a brewery and restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Tom Pastorius in 1986, and is located at 800 Vinial Street in the Troy Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, on the site of the former Eberhardt and Ober Brewery (founded in 1848).

2009 Closure

“On January 2, 2009, Birchmere ended beer production at the Vinial Street location and laid off 8 of the 10 brewery employees. All production was outsourced to the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The restaurant was scheduled to close February 28, 2009, but a last-minute agreement allowed it to remain at its current location for the next five years.

On August 19, 2009, Birchmere announced the indefinite closing of the Penn Brewery Restaurant.

Penn Brewery – Wikipedia

Subsequent Re – Opening

On November 23, 2009, Penn Brewery issued a press announcement indicating that a small group of local investors, had acquired Penn Brewery from Birchmere Capital, under undisclosed terms, and that the original owner would be returning to lead a restart of brewing at the Vinial Street location, as well as an eventual reopening of the restaurant.^[2]

On December 8, 2009, brewing officially resumed at the E & O facility, with the first mashing occurring at 10:20 AM. December 30, 2009 at 4:00 PM marked the first beer tasting of the new era of Penn Brewery.

On December 30, 2009 the Penn Brewery Restaurant opened for a “sneak peek” preview of the beers. Festivities were open to the public and the response was incredible.^[3]

In February 2010 a new kegging line was installed, and on February 17, 2010, the first kegs of locally brewed Penn Brewery beer were released to wholesalers.

Penn Brewery – Wikipedia

Pittsburgh

It’s good to see the brewery taking on new ownership and continuing to live on. With more and more breweries closing due to COVID and other issues (like the recently announced Newfangled Brew Works closing) its good to see older staples like Penn Brewery continuing to live on.

Amy and myself just came back from a trip that included Pittsburgh, but sadly we didn’t stop at Penn Brewery. In 2019 my daughters and I also had a road trip which included Pittsburgh, and we went by Penn Brewery but they were closed. Pittsburgh is a great city with a lot (read: a ton) of breweries, so if you are ever able to – make sure to get out there and check out the city and all the great breweries! You won’t be disappointed.

Articles about those trips:

• Going on the Road (2019)
• The Trip: Day 1 (2019)
• The Trip: Day 2 (2019)
• The Trip: Day 3 (2019)
• A Long 7 Day Road Trip out to Indianapolis (2020)
• The Trip to Indy – Day Two Recap: Landfall in Pittsburgh and Shenanigans (Allusion Brewing Company, Couch Brewery, Hop Farm Brewing Company)
• The Trip to Indianapolis: Day Two: Rock Furnace Trail, Allusion Brewing Company, Couch Brewery, Riverview Park, Hop Farm Brewing Company, and The Meadows Casino and Racetrack.

Also check out:

• BREW: The Museum of Beer (Pittsburgh, PA) – Is Set to Launch Their Online Exhibit

For More Information on Penn Brewery

• Penn Brewery (Facebook)
• Penn Brewery (Instagram)
• Penn Brewery (Twitter)
• Penn Brewery (Untappd)
• Penn Brewery (Official Website)
• Penn Brewery (Wikipedia)

Other News and Closings

We have covered many brewery openings, expansions, closings, and other news here on the blog. Be sure to check out all the various articles we’ve written below.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out other brewery openings and other brewery news recently:

• Other Half Brewing Company Opening Friday 2.18.22 in Philadelphia
• Midwest Coast Brewery Opening
• Brewery Opening: Howling Henry’s (Hummelstown)
• Brewery Opening: Highway Manor (Camp Hill)
• Brewery Opening: Rotunda Brew Pub (Hershey)
• Is JB LoveDraft’s Opening a Brewery?
• Tattered Flag at Hollywood Casino – Grantville – Opening Their 5th Location
• JB LoveDraft’s Grand Opening (Mechanicsburg)
• ZeroDay Opens Their New Tap Room (Harrisburg)
• Victory Brewery Fire and Explosion (Kennett Square)
• Sign of the Horse Brewery is Expanding in Hanover (Taking Over the Old Miscreation Brewery)
• Brewery Tour: Couch Brewery (Pittsburgh)
• Brewery Visit: Mellow Mink (Mechanicsburg)
• A Sneak Peak at the new Rubber Soul Brewery (Hummelstown)
• Rubber Soul Grand Opening (Hummelstown)
• VooDoo Lancaster Closing
• River Bend Hop Farm and Brewery Closes
• Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing (Mechanicsburg)
• Rally Point Tap Room Opening – Cox Brewing Company – Elizabethtown
• Spigot Brewing Closes
• Full Pint Brewing Closes
• Night Shift Brewing Cancels Expansion
• Mikkeller Brewing NYC Closes Permanently
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• Aslin Beer Co. Now Ships to Pennsylvania
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Aslin Beer Company Confirms Expanding to Pittsburgh
• Rural City Beer Company Coming to Beamstown PA
• Grand Opening of Forest and Main’s New Brewpub
• New Bells-gium – New Belgium Owned Company Buys Bell’s Brewery
• Human Robot Expanding to Jenkintown
• High Road Brewing Company Coming to Camp Hill, Pennsylvania in Summer 2022
• YAH Brewing’s First Can Drop
• RAR Brewing’s Star Wars Can Drop
• Arboretum Trail Brewing Company Opens Their Doors Tomorrow
• Macklin Brewing Company in Development
• Michaux Brewing Company Grand Opening
• Shy Bear Brewing Announces Two New Locations
• Newfangled Brew Works Announces Closure
• Penn Brewery Announces Sale and Owner’s Retirement
• Brewery Openings – Archives

Thanks For Reading

Thank you all for reading. As I said in the article its great to see this long living brewery continue on. The building is a beautiful building and its a wonderful brewery with some fantastic beers, and is a staple of Troy Hill in Pittsburgh. So its so good to see them continue on and prosper. Likewise, hope the owners of Penn Brewery – Sandy Cindrich, Corey Little, and Linda Nyman – enjoy their retirement.

We have lots of articles popping up about our trip out to Cleveland, Canton, and Pittsburgh, so be sure to check those out. As well as lots of other things going on, like our ad agreement with MICET Group and lots of other fun beer reviews, brewery reviews, book reviews, and more. So please subscribe and follow.

Cheers and thanks all!

-B. Kline

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!